[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 31 (Monday, August 3, 1998)]
[Pages 1516-1518]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Reception for Gubernatorial Candidate Martin J. Chavez in 
Albuquerque

July 27, 1998

    The President. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for your 
muted welcome. [Laughter] I am delighted to be here.
    Audience members. We love for you to be here. [Laughter]
    The President. Thank you. I'm glad to be here for Marty and 
Margaret, and Diane and Herb, and all the Democratic ticket. I'm honored 
to be on the platform with Senator Bingaman. And I am very grateful that 
a man I first met and began to admire almost 30 years ago, Fred Harris, 
is now the chairman of the Democratic Party in New Mexico. Thank you.
    I want to thank all the State officials who are here and the mayor 
and the speaker and the former State chairs, who are my friends,

[[Page 1517]]

and all the candidates. But I have to say a special word. You have been 
so good to me and to Hillary and to the Vice President. New Mexico has 
voted twice for our ticket and has played a major role in a lot of the 
policies we have implemented. I almost feel embarrassed to ask you to do 
anything else just for us, but if you really wanted to do me a favor, 
you'd send Shirley Baca and Tom Udall and Phil Maloof to Congress and 
give me a Congress we can work with.
    And I want to make one specific comment, and that is, I would ask 
that people in New Mexico who have voted in the past, for whatever 
reason, for the Green Party, but who honestly care about that 
environment, to take another look at the consequences of their votes. 
And I would like to just mention one thing, just for example, that 
affects New Mexico.
    I've worked hard with Tom Udall and with Jeff Bingaman, who has worn 
me out about this--[laughter]--to try to get the Baca Ranch preserved. 
It is the largest volcanic crater in the United States. It's home to one 
of our biggest wild elk herds. It's an investment not just in the 
environment but in the long-term economic well-being of New Mexico. I 
believe the preservation of your natural resources is the key to the new 
economy of the entire Southwest.
    It's one of several places in New Mexico that I have proposed to 
preserve, on a list of 100 I have sent to Congress. I sent the list to 
Congress in February. Let me just tell you how it works. We get money 
approved for these projects, but then under the law I have to send them 
to Congress, and they have to approve the release of money for the 
projects.
    I sent the list up in February. In April, on Earth Day, I asked 
again for the money to be released. It's now nearly August, and there's 
still been no action. Now, it seems to me that that's one more example, 
here in New Mexico, where the Democratic Party is on the side of 
responsible, constructive environmentalism. And I would hope that all 
people would look at that before going to the polls again in November 
and voting in these congressional races.
    In a larger sense, let me say that I have been trying since I first 
came to New Mexico as a candidate to try to prepare this great country 
of ours for a new century which is very different than the times in 
which most of us grew up, the times in which our parents lived. Think 
about what the characteristics of tomorrow will be, not just for someone 
in Los Angeles or Silicon Valley or New York City or Boston but for 
someone in Albuquerque or Little Rock or the smallest town in New Mexico 
or my home State of Arkansas.
    No matter how small, you live in a global economy that is basically 
growing by ideas. The fastest growing thing in the world today is the 
Internet--by far--fastest growing organism in history, social organism 
in history. And it is a metaphor, a symbol of how this economy is both 
going global and rooted in new ideas.
    I met a young man yesterday in Colorado who was telling me his story 
about how he was just a middle class young guy that had an idea, and 
he's about to take his company public, and he's worth more than he knew 
existed in the world just 10 years ago because America gave him a chance 
but also because he understood where tomorrow will be.
    Now, in that kind of economy, the second thing we know is that 
education for everybody will be more important than ever before. It's 
always been a personal advantage to have a good education. Now we know 
our whole country depends upon building the finest opportunities in 
elementary and secondary education for every child in this country, 
without regard to their income, their race, their background, or whether 
they live on a reservation or in a rural community or an inner-city 
neighborhood.
    The third thing we know is that the economy depends upon having an 
environment that is not only preserved, but it is to some extent, 
improved. You know, I've just been--you've been seeing all these fires 
in Florida. We've had 20 days of 100 degree temperature or higher, or 
above, from Dallas, east, across the whole wide swath of America. The 9 
hottest years ever recorded in the history have occurred in the last 11 
years; 1997 was the hottest year ever recorded. Every month of 1998 has 
broken the 1997 record. Now, my daughter's friends used to say, ``Denial 
is not just a river in Egypt.'' [Laughter] We

[[Page 1518]]

can grow the economy and have a responsible environmental policy. We can 
do that, but we have to make a decision to do it. And we have to 
understand it's one of the big issues out there.
    What are the other big issues? I'll just--we can't forget the human 
element in a global economy. We can't let people get left behind. That's 
why I'm fighting so hard for this Patients' Bill of Rights. In an 
economy that is increasingly based on ideas and information and 
organization, the human element can get left behind. One of the things 
our party has always done is to remind people of the human element. I'm 
proud of that. And I think that we have proved in the last 6 years you 
can take care of the human element; you can take care of the 
environment; and you can still grow the economy if you do it right.
    And the last point I want to make is--and if you look around this 
room today, you see it illustrated--the world we're living in will 
reward nations that can reflect that world in the best sense. How much 
of your time as President have I had to spend dealing with other 
people's religious, racial, and ethnic conflicts? As America grows ever 
more diverse, if you want us to do good in a world like that, we have to 
be good at home. We have to reflect the best of America.
    And what's all that got to do with Marty and Diane? I'll tell you 
what. In this economy that we've produced, I've tried to actually reduce 
the role of the Federal Government in inessential areas, delegate more 
to the States where I thought it was appropriate. We now have the 
smallest Federal Government we've had in 35 years. What does that mean? 
That means it matters a whole lot more who the Governor is. It matters 
what the education policy of the State is. It matters what the policy is 
of moving people from welfare to work and whether you're helping people 
raise their kids as well as expecting them to work if they're able-
bodied. It matters what the environmental policy of the State is. These 
things matter.
    It matters. We passed, in the balanced budget bill, we passed funds 
to give the States the ability to insure another 5 million kids who 
don't have any health insurance. But the Federal Government is not doing 
it; the State is doing it with money we gave them. Therefore, it really 
matters whether a Governor wakes up every morning worrying about whether 
some kid somewhere in New Mexico who might get sick, whose family 
doesn't have any health insurance.
    So it is not enough, as important as it is, for you to make the 
right decisions for Senator and Congress and for President in the year 
2000. It really matters to the shape of your children's future who the 
Governor of this State is. It matters who the Lieutenant Governor is. It 
matters if they have an approach that is consistent with your values and 
if they really care about how you're going to live in this great new 
21st century.
    So I'm proud to be here because New Mexico has done a lot for me and 
for my family and for our administration. But New Mexico should now do 
itself a favor and elect this great ticket.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at approximately 2:35 p.m. in the Regal and 
Registry Room at the Sheraton Uptown Hotel. In his remarks, he referred 
to Mr. Chavez's wife, Margaret; Diane Denish, candidate for Lt. Gov. and 
her husband, Herb; Mayor Jim Baca of Albuquerque; Raymond G. Sanchez, 
speaker, New Mexico House of Representatives; and Shirley Baca, Tom 
Udall, and Phillip Maloof, candidates for New Mexico's Second, Third, 
and First Congressional Districts, respectively. A tape was not 
available for verification of the content of these remarks.